Sautekh Necrons

HISTORY

The Sautekh Dynasty consists of eighty Tomb Worlds. Its crownworld is Mandragora on the Eastern Fringe. In the times before the biotransference that transformed the Necrontyr into the Necrons, the Sautekh Dynasty was the third most powerful of all the dynasties. In the present– as it was in the past– the Sautekh Dynasty is ruled by Phaeron Imotekh the Stormlord.

One of the Tomb Worlds within the Sautekh Dynasty is the planet known within the Imperium as Adrilles. Millions of years ago, the planet was inhabited by a second dynasty– Rubicon. Sautekh and Rubicon were rivals, a rivalry that eventually erupted into a prolonged war that devastated both combatants and the planet itself. Imotekh was victorious. His rival– Trazyn the Infinite– and the remains of the Rubicon Dynasty were exiled. The victory, however, was costly. With the planet devastated and their own numbers and resources greatly reduced, Imotekh the Stormlord and his Sautekh Dynasty on Adrilles entered stasis. These Necrons would sleep until their Rubicon rivals returned.

Tens of thousands of years later, Trazyn the Infinite did return. He was so angered in finding Adrilles lifeless that he unleashed the fury of C’Tan. The might of this attack was such that the planet’s surface was cracked, great swaths of rock tumbling into the void.

Deep within the largest piece of shattered Adrilles lay the Tomb of Imotekh the Stormlord.

The strength of Trazyn’s attack was such that many Sautekh Tombs were destroyed. Those that were not were damaged in varying degrees. Tombs that had begun to awaken when Trazyn the Infinite returned fell silent once again– forced to shut down in order to repair; but, by the time repairs were completed, Trazyn and his Rubicon Necrons were no longer active on or within planetary space of Adrilles and thus Imotekh and his Necrons remained silent.

Sautekh and Rubicon slept for millions of years until the machinations of the Jager Corps on Adrilles stirred the Sautekh Necrons. When Imotekh the Stormlord stepped free of his newly arisen Tomb, he found himself looking up at an unfamiliar sky. He was not on Adrilles. He was on a moon– Grimmig, one of three moons that orbited Adrilles. The planet he had taken from his rival did not have moons when he entered stasis. He knew who was responsible: Trazyn the Infinite.

ADRILLES WAR

Fringe historians and philosophers would argue that the influence of Imotekh the Stormlord and the Sautekh Necrons during the Adrilles War is under-represented in official Imperium accounts. These more controversial figures paint Imotekh and the Sautekh as the most formidable foe in the war. The Imperium’s account focus on the Jagers Corps as the primary enemy and Chaos as a secondary enemy brought into the war solely because of the Jagers’ tinkering with forbidden uses of psychic abilities. The Necrons, if mentioned at all, are described in the context of the ancient war between the two dynasties. That is, their presence in the Adrilles War was solely to wage war on each other as a continuation of that ancient struggle.

The fringe elements, however, rightly– in this historian’s opinion– describe the strong alliance between Sautekh and Chaos. The sophistication of this alliance is seen in the accounts given by Jagers, Space Wolves, Cult Mechanicus and H’Av’Raj’lkon. Masses of Necron and daemons attacking together or defending together. Such operations require willing coordination and a level of planning that would suggest Sautekh and Chaos leaders were in constant communication.

What is widely reported in the histories is that the Sautekh Necrons acquired Tyranid biomass fused to Necron technology via Warp energy, and were able to use this to exert a tenuous level of control over Tyranids discovered in some of the Necron tombs that had failed to surface on Grimmig. These Tyranids were used in the defense of the volcanic north and then again during The Battle of Harta Arle.

NOTABLE BATTLES

Notable battles of the Adrilles War in which the Sautekh Necrons participated:

Imotekh the Stormlord
Imotekh has been the Phaeron of the Sautekh Necrons for millions of years. He has remained on the moon Grimmig since awakening from stasis.

The CollectorThis Destroyer Lord was the first Sautekh Necron to wake from stasis. He sensed an unknown power on the planet Adrilles. To him anything with power can be used as a weapon. The greater the power the greater the weapon and this weapon must have great power in order to wake him from his long slumber. While he was contemplating this, other Necrons came out of stasis, including Imotekh the Stormlord.

After he explained what he sensed to Imotekh, the Stormlord sent the Destroyer Lord to Adrilles with an army of Necrons and Chaos Daemons and tasked him with finding and obtaining the artifact of power. The Destroyer Lord did so and is now involved in the study of this artifact in order to discern its potential as a weapon.

The name “The Collector” is only spoken by other Necrons in secret. Hushed whispers. It’s not a name the Destroyer Lord has chosen. Rather, it is a name given to him by other Necron Lords and Overlords in disgust. The name is in reference to the Destroyer Lord’s fetish for collecting the severed heads of enemy commanders he has killed in combat. There has been the rare occasion when another Necron Lord will attempt to defy the Destroyer Lord by calling him by the name “The Collector”, but none who have done so have lived long after uttering the words. The Destroyer Lord hates this name– “The Collector”– because it reminds him of the foul Trazyn the Infinite who collects things.

Lay Arteb
For hundreds of years this Cryptek operated for Imotekh the Stormlord as a spy within the army of the false Trazyn the Infinite of the Rubicon Necrons. Imotekh would stage looses in battle against armies that included this Cryptek in its ranks in order to accelerate the spy’s promotion to higher positions within the Rubicon Dynasty. This Cryptek was instrumental in the inevitable downfall of Trazyn the Infinite. After Trazyn was exiled, the Cryptek was brought before Imotekh and awarded ascension to Harbinger of Despair.

After waking from stasis, Lay Arteb was given command of a sizable force and tasked with descending into the bowels of Grimmig to find Sautekh Tombs that had not yet risen. It was during these explorations that Lay Arteb discovered Tyranids had taken roost in some of the Tombs.

STRONGHOLDS

Grimmig
The Tomb of Imotekh the Stormlord was buried deep in Adrilles. When Trazyn the Infinite shattered the planet, Imotekh’s Tomb (and many others) was cast adrift. That large piece of broken planet eventually became Adrilles’ largest moon– Grimmig. During the early period of the Adrilles War, Imotekh the Stormlord commanded Sautekh Necrons on Adrilles and Grimmig from his Tomb. Several of the Tombs (including Imotekh’s) rose to the surface of Grimmig. These horizon breaking monoliths had weaponry capable of defending Grimmig from orbital assaults. This weaponry became active on the 8th day of the Adrilles War.

The Adrilles TombsMany Tombs on Adrilles were destroyed or severely damaged when Trazyn the Infinite unleashed the power of C’Tan, but others survived the calamity and awoke when the Jager Corps conducted a massive psychic experiment on the planet’s surface. Each Tomb became a staging area for Necron attacks. Many of the active Tombs were in the volcanic northern hemisphere. The only region where there were no surviving Tombs was the mountainous south.